Umbrella Corporation: New Beginnings
by TheWatcherWriter
Summary: Fans of Resident Evil should know that Albert Wesker and William Birkin were both employees at Umbrella. But what did the two work at for all those years? Here's my version of what happened.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Two men walked down the pristine corridors. Each was clad in a similar uniform of white lab coat and Umbrella identification tag pinned neatly on the left side of their chest. One was considerably older than the other, his face showing the creases of wrinkles around the eyes and the eye bags of someone who has often stayed up into the late hours of the night, working. The younger appeared to be in his early twenties, his neat and tidy approach - with a smart looking shirt, black trousers and sensible footwear - was completed by his gelled back hair and handsome complexion. He looked around 21, but in actual fact he was only 17 years of age. This young man was named Albert Wesker.

"As I mentioned to you last week, Albert. We have a new researcher joining us. His name is William Birkin. He arrived earlier this morning and is going to be working with me, I'll take you to meet him." Wesker listened attentively to the man's words. He himself hadn't been here as long as the rest of the researchers and so had relied on someone to show him the ropes.

That man had been Dr Marcus. Albert held a strong sense of respect for that older man; after all, he had been one of the original founders of this company. He nodded his head as the man finished speaking, idly wondering what this Dr Birkin would be like. He'd not been told anything about him yet, nothing apart from his name. Marcus fell silent and undoubtedly began thinking about one hundred other things at once. Albert kept walking, keeping in time with the Doctor beside him.

William looked at the clock on the wall for the umpteenth time, he was nervous, and these scientists were taking their time. He'd been here for 4 hours already and all he'd been able to do was talk to a few people about getting an access card and sit around in the coffee lounge, waiting. He sighed quietly and leaned back in his seat. He liked this lab coat, the ones they had at his school all came in one size, large. They weren't meant for minors like him, only the senior students at his high school usually got to do lab work. But he was different. William had a higher IQ than most adults even had. He'd been able to beat all of the professors at his old school in a chess tournament as well as the pupils. When some kids wanted a new bike or a guitar for their 10th birthdays, William received a microscope and chemistry set. This, of course, did not make him a popular boy at school, but William didn't really think about friends when he was sitting in classes for people 3 or 4 years older than him. He was good, and he knew it.

But here he was, sitting here and waiting in a prison that stank of coffee. People came in and out, usually the same folk, and the young man wondered dully why they weren't getting on with something useful instead of drinking cups of coffee. He'd already used the vending machine three times and was now utterly fed up with the bland taste of machine-made coffee. It seemed like the only decent thing to do with the paper cups was to build some kind of tower. He was actually getting rather into this new design of tower - upside-down cup placed on up sided cup, placed on another upside-down cup - when the door clicked and two men walked in. William quickly dismantled the tower just as the men walked around the corner and into view. He was holding the three cups in his hands with guilty looking expression on his face. The older man gestured towards him and looked at the other.

"Albert, meet William Birkin."

Albert really tried not to stare, but he found it hard not to. He had been listening hadn't he? The Doctor had said William Birkin? What was this kid doing in here? He looked like he was in his early teens. 'Was this some kind of joke?' Albert thought. 'Is this a test, and they are observing how I will react?' He stopped staring at the kid, who was looking back at him like a startled rabbit, and glanced at Marcus who was watching Albert with a completely calm expression.

"You may notice that he is a little young." Marcus said.

Wesker would have laughed, but he wasn't that rude. A little? He should be in school.

"But I'm sure the two of you will get along handsomely. I have places to be, and things to do, so I'll allow the two of you to get to know each other." He started to walk away, but stopped and looked back towards Albert. "Oh, and Albert?"

Albert switched his gaze from William's messy looking hairstyle to the Doctor.

"Yes, Doctor?"

Marcus beckoned Albert over, so Albert walked towards him.

"Smile and be nice." The doctor smirked, knowing full well that Albert didn't have a cheery persona, and left the room.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Albert stared at the door that Marcus had just exited through. He remained there for some time and delayed the point were he would actually have to turn around and communicate with this youth. His attention was caught however, when William dropped one of the paper cups he was holding and it rolled next to Albert's foot. Both teenagers looked at the cup, then turned and looked at one another. William was the first to speak, he didn't sound nervous at all. Albert hadn't expected that. In fact, he sounded confident and intelligent, not what his appearance had led Albert to believe.

"So you're Albert Wesker? One of the other researchers told me there was another younger guy here that I might be working with. Are you going to be researching for Dr Marcus' new project?"

Albert didn't answer straight away; instead he bent down and picked up the cup that had been dropped. Placing it inside one of the other cups William was holding, he replied dryly.

"How old are you?"

William frowned a little bit. "You didn't answer my question. I'm 15. And before you start giving me a mini lecture about my lack of experience etc, I can say that you aren't much older than I am, 2 years maybe so don't be a bore and lets get out of this place. I can't stand the smell of coffee any longer."

Albert didn't say anything; he just gave William another glance over. Finally he returned his gaze to the teen's scowling face and smirked.

"Alright William. I'll show you around." One thing for certain, Albert thought, at least this guy won't want me to hold his hand every step of the way.

Albert strolled swiftly along the corridors, he didn't usually walk this fast unless he had somewhere important to go, but it kind of amused him to see this minor trying to keep up with his long strides. He stopped suddenly when passing a room, then backtracked, looking into the office to see if the supervisor was in. To his annoyance, the supervisor was busy. Great, couldn't dump Birkin just yet. When Albert took a look at William, he saw that he was been watched carefully. There was something in William's eyes that Albert could tell he didn't trust him.

"What have you seen so far?" Albert asked just to break the tension.

"A vending machine." said William in a bored tone of voice. "But in all seriousness, nothing much. All the other people who've been assigned to 'show me around' have left me as a burden for someone else to take." He eyed Albert at this last statement, and then continued. "I would have shown myself around, but I haven't got an access card yet. I'm not an idiot, I can read a map of the place easily, but I suppose they think I'd walk into a shark tank or something…." He glanced down the long corridor and Albert took this opportunity to smirk again. He concealed his expression once again before talking.

"I'm sure they don't consider you an idiot, otherwise the only reason you'd be here would be as a test guinea pig and not a researcher."

For some reason Albert was developing a liking for this kid, it was good to know he wasn't the youngest in the place anymore. He started down the corridor again, thinking to himself, 'Better show the poor kid something interesting.' But stopped when he realized he wasn't being followed. He looked round at Birkin who was peering into one of the labs through the glassed window and moved back over to his side, checking to see what had catch the young man's eye.

As Albert caught sight of the researcher that was actually in the lab, he frowned.

It was Dr McCarthy.

This old man was one of the most unpleasant people Albert had ever met. He was one of the senior scientists in Umbrella and seemed to have a hate for all people under the age of 40. Anything that someone was doing in his presence was wrong in his mind, and had to be done the way _he_ had learnt it. On one occasion, Albert could recall perfectly was a time he was told to help the old man.

Everything he did was watched and criticized, and when he had finished the days work, he would be kept behind to do it all again because McCarthy believed he was incompetent.

In short, the guy was a smartass.

Albert took a hold of William's sleeve and tugged once, "Come on, you don't want to meet that man just yet." But William didn't budge. Albert ducked out of the way from the window and started backing down the corridor. "We have to move quickly if you want to take a look at this whole facility." He kept his voice down, not wanting the grouchy Doctor to find an excuse to shout at them.

To his horror, William opened the door to the lab and marched right inside, addressing the older Doctor sternly as if he actually had some authority. "What do you think you are doing?"

Albert thought about going to rescue Birkin, but as he heard McCarthy's dry, angry tone of voice, he knew it was too late.

'So long William.' He thought, and then headed off back down the corridor.

William wasn't very pleased. That foolish old man was evidently an idiot. He had tried to tell him that when making up standards from a highly concentrated stock solution, it's the acid that you add to the water and never the other way around.

He'd been shouted at and laughed at. Told he couldn't possibly have the correct knowledge since he was simply a child, and was told to go back to high school. On his exit he found that 'loyal companion' of his, Albert, had vanished into thin air. Whatever, he had to tell somebody of that man's mistake. He walked along the corridor and met with a technician about halfway.

"You might want to tell Dr McCarthy that he's doing his experiment wrong before something actually ha-"

There was a loud noise of breaking glass, then a scream from down the corridor.

William grinned after the technician as he sprinted towards that man's scream to aid him.

He should have listened, now he would to have acid burns to remind him what to do next time. A group of researchers had flocked into the lab along with some medics. William was about to walk off when he spotted Albert.

"Hey, Al." William called over and waved. He saw Albert flinch and look over. Rejoining William a little further along the corridor he said in a hushed voice.

"Don't call me Al. What happened here?" William answered coolly, watching as the medics took the old scientist out from the laboratory he was in and away down the corridor. "I told him what he was doing would cause his experiment to blow up in his face, but he decided not to listen, hence…." He gestured towards the commotion with one hand, shoving the other in his pocket.

Albert watched absently as the group began to disassemble, his mind on other matters. "Dr McCarthy isn't the kind of guy who will listen to anyone except himself. I dare say he's learnt some kind of lesson from this." He took a brief look at William, and then gestured with his head towards an exit to the outside. "Come on, it's too busy here."

Albert leaned against the wall and took a packet of cigarettes out of his lab coat pocket. He took one for himself and put it in his mouth, then offered one to William.

The young man raised his hand to take it, then paused.

"What's the matter?" Said Albert, "Nobody will care."

The 15 year old frowned. "It's not that, I…. just have issues about which brand I smoke." Albert stared at William blankly.

"It's a cigarette. It's not like you can get a healthy option."

William shrugged, then put his hands back in his pockets.

Albert sneered slightly and put the packet back in his pocket. Taking out a lighter, he lit the end of his cigarette and took a look around the bleak area around them. There wasn't any talking for a while, Wesker smoking and looking at nothing in particular as he thought about the incident that had just occurred.

How bad has those burns been. If he were lucky, McCarthy wouldn't be around for a good while, all thanks to the young smartass standing in front of him. Fight a smartass with another smartass.

Wesker chuckled coldly and turned to look at Birkin once more, stubbing out his cigarette on the wall and dropping it on the floor.

"You're working with Marcus then?" William perked up a little at this and started talking quickly, obviously not able to conceal his excitement. "Yes I am. He's got something unusual that he's planning to do with a certain type of virus. He's made arrangements of extracting the DNA of different animals and encoding it into the virus to create something with more potential. He said that a young man like me would be a great addition to the team, because I can carry on the research for longer. The earlier you start, the more you can achieve. Did you know I'm the youngest, _ever_, researcher to work in Umbrella?" He looked particularly smug at this and Albert began to think.

Before this guy had joined, he'd had the title of youngest ever researcher. William seemed to have a lot of potential too, possibly more than he did. He raised his eyebrows to Birkin and answered gave a reply just to keep him satisfied. "Really?" He wasn't even listening to William as he continued chatting about viruses, it was interesting, but he wondered what would happen to him. Would he just be cast aside by Marcus and replaced with William? That wasn't a nice thought. Albert didn't have an idea of what else he could do. He had toyed with the idea of joining a police force, but they said he wasn't old enough yet. He snapped out of his thoughts and began to listen to William once more.

"…-So that's why they want to use some kind of annelid, because they think that the-" Albert interrupted.

"William."

"-…Yes?" William looked confused as to why Wesker had stopped him.

"Is Doctor Marcus looking for anyone else to work alongside him in this project?"

"I'm… not sure. I think he'll want all the people he can get. Why?"

"I think I'll do it."

William's eyebrow rose. "Just like that? What's your inspiration?"

Albert didn't want to say what he was thinking. He gave William a look and noticed his tie was coming out of place. This wasn't jealousy, was it? No, something else.

A friendly rivalry sounded better.

"I've been thinking about it for some time, this seems like the area I want to work in."

Someone like William would not be a bad person to have as an ally.

And what is wrong with a little healthy competition?


End file.
